


keep me 'cause your fire keeps me alive

by boston_sized_city



Category: The AM Archives (Podcast), The Bright Sessions (Podcast), The College Tapes (Podcast)
Genre: Autistic Oliver Ritz, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, it's not technically relevant but it's important to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28408611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boston_sized_city/pseuds/boston_sized_city
Summary: oliver has never been in love before. he starts to accept that he is.
Relationships: Mark Bryant/Oliver Ritz
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	keep me 'cause your fire keeps me alive

**Author's Note:**

> title from like you mean it by ruelle, the MOST mark/oliver song in existence

Oliver felt warm. It was an odd feeling, something in his chest bubbling up and giving him warmth. He felt it sometimes, felt it now as he looked at Mark, sitting next to him, facing away.

It was a feeling Oliver didn't know what to do with. If he let it sit there silently, it was piled onto, buried under a heap of other emotions and only peaking up to make his chest hurt when he thought too hard about it.

“Oliver?” He heard Mark’s voice and looked up. He hadn't noticed he'd been zoning out. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Oliver shifted a little, registering where he was. Living room. Their living room. Movie, on the television screen. It was paused.

Mark held a hand out, cautiously, and Oliver took it, guiding it to his shoulder to let Mark know he would let himself be touched. “You sure?” he asked, shifting to lean on him as his arm wrapped more firmly around Oliver’s shoulders.

“Yeah. What movie-- Right.” Atlantis. That’s what they’d been watching. When had he stopped watching?

He felt a warm hand on his forehead, and looked to see Mark frowning at him- He’d come to recognize the expression as worry. Mark’s worry was different than others’. 

Caleb’s worry was nervous, unsure. Adam’s was understanding, familiar. But Mark’s worry was different. Oliver couldn’t tell why yet.

He moved away, not away from the touch, but from the worry. “I’m not sick, Byron."

“Just making sure.” Mark leaned up and kissed his forehead. He smoothed his hair a little before sitting back. 

Oliver nodded slightly. His chest felt warm again. “You can- unpause the movie.”

“Right.” Mark found the remote and played the movie, then moved again so he was curled into Oliver’s side.

It was odd, Mark stopping the movie to make sure Oliver was okay. Oliver  _ was  _ okay, and he didn't think he'd looked otherwise. But Mark had been worried, anyway, and had put everything to the side for him.

There was a part of him that hated it. That didn't trust it. That didn't trust that Mark could possibly put him first, that he could care about him more than other things. But the rest of him longed for that warm feeling, and wanted to believe that he got it from something real. He tried his best to believe that.

He couldn't focus back on the movie. He tried. His mind just kept shutting it out. So instead he focused on Mark. Mark's hair that seemed impossibly soft, and was, when Oliver played with it. His freckles, which were only on his ears and nowhere else.

He curled up a little around Mark, sliding his hand up into that impossibly soft hair, pressing a kiss to the freckles that should be in more places.

Mark shifted a bit against him, and at first he was worried.  _ He wasn't supposed to do that, was he? _ He pulled his hand away, and Mark looked up. "I was just getting comfortable," he said, like he could sense Oliver's worry.

"Oh." Oliver reached for his hand, then, rather than going back to what he'd been doing. Mark squeezed it, and Oliver relaxed.

He wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to this. Affection.  _ Casual  _ affection. Being worried about.

When he looked at Mark, who'd gone back to watching the movie, he wasn't sure he wanted to.


End file.
